Category: Christian Living (Page 1 of 8)

The Bible tells us to love and care for the immigrants among us!

February 28, 2026 / Joseph Ginder

Rabbi Shai Held wrote an essay recently that appeared in the New York Times. It is entitled One of the Bible’s Greatest Moral Revolutions. I would think that Jesus’ admonitions to love our neighbors and enemies and to treat others as we would like to be treated ourselves would be enough for Christians… But (speaking as a citizen of the United States) apparently not, judging by the cruel and arbitrary treatment of immigrants by many carrying the authority of our government these days.

Rabbi Held addresses biblical teaching from Hebrew scripture, focusing mostly on the Pentateuch, as one might expect. He concludes:

…many of our leaders lack the most fundamental understanding of the central biblical commandment to love and care for the immigrant.

Rabbi Held discusses what he calls the revolutionary teaching of the Torah regarding love for immigrants. The first love is love of God. The second is love of neighbor. Those two ideas were widespread in biblical times. The third love we are called to observe in Torah, though, was revolutionary in Torah times – love the immigrant residing in your community! See, for example, Exodus 22.21. His essay is highly recommended. If we claim to follow Yahweh and do not love immigrants in our community, we’re not listening to the teaching that expresses God’s concern for those who are in disadvantaged situations with little power.

If we claim to follow Jesus and do not love our immigrant neighbors…. Well, we’re not really following him, are we? There’s really no excuse for one who claims to follow Jesus to be cruel and unjust.

Listen to an Excellent Episode of the Esau McCaulley Podcast – Patriotism, Big Churches, and “Human”!

July 4, 2025 / Joseph Ginder

The last episode of the Esau McCaulley podcast (as of July 4, 2025) is really excellent. I highly recommend it.

There’s a wonderful discussion of patriotism with a really helpful metaphor – the best I’ve heard yet! You’ll recognize it when you hear it. That conversation is followed by a discussion of big church vs. small church – the advantages and disadvantages of each. (Spoiler: To be fair, it is a discussion weighted towards small church.) Lastly, there is a closing segment discussing Peter Thiel’s philosophy and what it means to be human – a certain kind of techno-false gospel.

Listen in your favorite podcast app or watch it on YouTube or listen here in your favorite web browser.

Using Language Without Regard for Truth… Or Not

February 20, 2025 / Joseph Ginder

In the 1992 American edition of his book Abuse of Language, Abuse of Power (first published in German in 1974), Josef Pieper commented that advertising in modern societies damages language. Words are “perverted and debased to become a catalyst, a drug, as it were, and . . . as such administered. Instrument of power may still seem a somewhat strong term for this; still, it does not seem so farfetched any longer.”

Of course, in these days, this thought strikes me as deeply relevant. What is evidently false is claimed to be true – outright lies! Spoken by those in positions of great responsibility and power. And what is true is denied and suppressed. All in the name of influencing and controlling other humans for some presumed “good” end. Not all words are like this – yet? – but so many seem to believe what is simply false and damaging. And so it continues. Straight talk is hard to find.

Pieper, in this book, insists those who care for truth must stand solidly against such twisted and twisting use of words. Quoting Pieper…

This implies also opposition to anything that could destroy or distort the nature of the word as communication and its unbiased openness to reality. In this respect we are well able to pronounce the general principle and at the same time to be very specific: opposition is required, for instance, against every partisan simplification, every ideological agitation, every blind emotionality; against seduction through well-turned yet empty slogans, against autocratic terminology with no room for dialogue, against personal insult as an element of style (all the more despicable the more sophisticated it is), against the language of evasive appeasement and false assurance… and not least against the jargon of the revolution, against categorical conformism, and categorical nonconformism…
Abuse of Language, Abuse of Power by Josef Pieper

How to oppose such words spoken for purpose without regard for truth? I mean, how to oppose such with integrity for Jesus’ teaching and love for even those who behave as enemies? It often seems difficult. Muddy. And yet, scripture has true words that speak profound wisdom to those who will listen….

All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
Matthew 5.37, New International Version of the Bible

Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one another.
Ephesians 4.25, New International Version of the Bible

When words are many, sin is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise.
Proverbs 10.19, New International Version of the Bible

These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgment in your courts; do not plot evil against each other, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this,” declares the LORD.
Zechariah 8.16-17, New International Version of the Bible

May I be found faithful with my words.

Evangelical Confession 2024

September 7, 2024 / Joseph Ginder

Instead of divisive politics and hate, this confession is about Jesus and his ways. Hot off the presses, check out the Evangelical Confession 2024. I signed.

“The Infinitely Compelling Christ”

August 28, 2024 / Joseph Ginder

A friend sent me a link to this short video comment by David Bentley Hart. (Thanks, AJ!) I appreciated it a lot. You can see it here or watch below inline.

I’d simply add that the experience of the risen Christ is not only an infinitely compelling historical event. It isn’t only for the likes of Paul, but for Jesus’ followers today. I don’t mean to imply that Hart thinks or said otherwise. However, just to clarify, the experience of the risen Christ is central to following Jesus today. It is what makes faith impossible to abandon for me and many others.

May you also experience Him – “the presence of God in time” – in spite of the all too prevalent personal and institutional shortcomings of those who claim to be his – including my own.

Rich Villodas’ Big Picture Gospel

July 10, 2024 / Joseph Ginder

My kind of big picture definition of of the Gospel is I believe that the gospel is the good news that the kingdom of God has come near in Jesus Christ, and that in his life, death, resurrection, and enthronement the powers of sin and death no longer have the last word, and the primary fruit of the Gospel is a new Humanity. This is Ephesians 2: the dividing wall of hostility coming down, a new Humanity, a new community, a new family.
Rich Villodas, speaking at the Long Beach Church Collective, July 8, 2024

Prayer, Persuasion, Service, and Suffering

July 9, 2024 / Joseph Ginder

I was listening to an interview of John Dickson today on the Holy Post. The way he characterized the means by which Christians are called to change the world stuck with me. It wasn’t that his was a new thought. It was that his simple way of saying it was helpful. I found it worth remembering… and sharing! So, check out the three quotes below regarding our call to prayer, persuasion, service, and suffering.

If Christ is on the throne and He has poured out His Spirit, then prayer, persuasion, service, and suffering are more than enough. They’re the only tools Christ gave His people to change the world. Early Christians took hold of them and exercised them in the power of God’s Spirit, knowing that Christ had already won. They overturned the world with those four things.

I freely acknowledge that I have no special privileges in society. Christians have no right to tell the nation what to do. Persuasion, service, and prayer are all we’ve got, and all we really need… Christ showed us how to profoundly love and profoundly disagree at the same time. I am looking forward to fresh opportunities to embody this twofold ethical feat in His name.

Believers have one course of action when confronted with opposition. They are to follow the Lord Jesus in enduring suffering, refusing to retaliate, and committing to love enemies.
John Dickson

I was refreshed by his clear comments when so many Christians are invested heavily in politics, as if winning elections or seating judges is how Jesus changes the world! It was good to hear him remind listeners that even if Christians are in the majority [and even if all the Christians agree, I would add] our calling is not to coercively legislate those who disagree with us into oblivion, but rather to persuade. Such fresh air!

Quaker Testimonies

June 5, 2024 / Joseph Ginder

I often read Johan Mauer’s fifth day commentaries on CanYouBelieve.me. Recently his writing included an excerpt listing “Quaker Testimonies” taken from the developing Faith and Practice of Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting. I found it refreshingly…. er, Quaker?

I mean that in contrast to the drift of many Friends groups toward generic American evangelicalism, abandoning testimonies historically valued by Friends. I’m not advocating a stance that ignores the times in which we live in favor of some idealized past. (Frankly, our past has never been ideal!)

However, these are testimonies that faithfully represent Jesus’ character and teachings that Friends have tried to seriously pursue and embody. They remain Jesus’ teaching and character; they are not obsolete! If we are to follow Him, we try to live these testimonies in an age of 21st century technology and in the face of an often violent global society where living and worshipping in these ways remains relevant and necessary as the life to which Jesus calls.

But let me get to the testimonies! You can read the whole commentary by Johan here. The testimony portion that I want to highlight (by quoting) follows.

We understand the Quaker testimonies as a call:

to live simply and sustainably;

to seek nonviolent responses to conflict, and refuse participation in war and preparation for war;

to speak the truth and keep our promises;

to make common decisions based on our community’s practice of prayer and discernment rather than majority rule or force of personality;

to regard each other—and all people—with a commitment to equality and equity, rejecting all false distinctions based on social, cultural, or economic status;

in the wider world, to support, advocate, and initiate efforts toward peace, justice, care of Creation, and relief of suffering in ways that are consistent with these testimonies;

in all things, to put Love first.

As we set forth these values and commitments, we acknowledge that they are to some extent aspirational, not an inventory of our successes as of today.

Needing Christ

May 2, 2024 / Joseph Ginder

One thing I knew by this time: I needed Christ and not merely His religion… The Bible says that God does not wait for me to merit His love but heaps it upon me without my deserving it. It says also that there is neither male nor female in Christ… How good, how indescribably good! What good news for me a woman, a woman born in India among Brahmans who hold out no hope for me and the like of me! The Bible declares that Christ did not reserve this great salvation for a particular caste or sex.
Pandita Ramabai, An Honourable Heritage: The Pandita Ramabai Story in her Own Words (eBook: Community Christian Ministries, 2019), pp. 27, 28, 30-31.

Notes on Free Speech, Civil Disobedience, and Following Jesus

May 2, 2024 / Joseph Ginder

This post is written in support of the Long Beach Friends Church message of May 5, 2024 to provide links to associated material for further study. Listen to that message here.

David French wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times that clarifies many of the concepts and legal issues related to free speech and civil disobedience.

This is the commitment card for the Birmingham Campaign that Martin Luther King, Jr. let. There is a brief comment on the commitment card here.

The Bible Project podcast on the Sermon on the Mount, episode 15, explaining “Turn the Other Cheek” discusses Martin Luther King’s approach to civil disobedience. Below is Martin Luther King Jr. as quoted in this podcast episode:

Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It’s a sword that heals. The ultimate weakness of violent retaliation is that it’s a descending spiral begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar but you cannot murder the LIE nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate so it goes returning evil for evil ,multiplies evil, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. I love that darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Read Martin Luther King Jr.’s sermon “When Peace Becomes Obnoxious.”